In spoken language, de can contract to just a d sound even before a consonant. In pas d’chat, first say pas with a d sound on the end of it, then say chat.

If you can adopt this, you’ll make your French sound a little more natural.

Try saying these, but when you do, contract the de as was done in pas d’chat:

pas de tempspas de nouvellespas de questionpas de problèmepas de compte

The second thing to point out is the vowel sound in pas and chat.Listen again if you have to. The way the vowel is pronounced in these two words is used frequently in the French of Québec. You’ll hear it at the end of these words, for example: bas, cas, cadenas, and sometimes in ça and là.

A reader of OffQc asks how to pronounce là because he’s been hearing two pronunciations of it. In fact, it’s not just là that has two pronunciations but also ça. Let’s look at how they’re pronounced in this post.